The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for diagnosing and correcting faults in computers.
Personal computers (PCs) are now being used more widely than ever before and the applications in which they are used are becoming more diverse including such areas as supermarkets tills.
Computers, however, are not immune from faults and, in order to correct such faults, a trained engineer needs to be called out to the site of the computer where he will need to carry out a number of tests to determine the nature of the fault and to correct the fault.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved method and apparatus diagnosing and correcting faults in computers.
According to the present invention there is provided apparatus for diagnosing and correcting faults in a host commuter having a central processing unit (CPU) and ancillary units, the apparatus comprises two parts, a first Dart to be coupled to the host computer and operable to disable the CPU and operate and/or interrogate the ancillary units, and a second part to be coupled to the first part and operable to diagnose faults in the computer through the first part and to effect at least some corrective measures through the first part.
Advantageously, the first and second parts each include a modem, each are located remote from each other and are coupled together through a telecommunication link.
The first part may comprise a service card which can be plugged into the host computer.
The service card may comprise a master controller module for controlling the first part and for issuing commands and transmitting and receiving data through the system bus interface of the host computer.
The service card also includes a voltage measurement module for generating reference voltages and comparison means for comparing them with selected system voltages of the host computer.
The master controller module preferably includes a store for storing a unique serial number identifying the first part or the host computer. The store may also store an access code to enable comparison between the stored access code and one generated by the second part to deny access of the second part to the host computer if equality is not detected.
The first part may also include a system bus sniffer module to store system information from the host computer.
The first part advantageously includes an adaptor module to effect one or more hardware resets of the host computer.
The host computer preferably is a personal computer (PC).
Disabling the CPU may mean physically disabling it, or more generally may mean displacing the CPU so that the first part can access the ancillary units (over the system bus for example).
According to the present invention there is further provided a method for diagnosing and correcting faults in a host computer having a central processing unit (CPU) and ancillary units, the method comprising coupling a first part to the host computer; coupling a second part to the first part; diagnosing faults in the computer at the second part through the first part, and effecting at least some corrective measures through the first part.